Netherlands/ 6. Financing of culture

6.3 Trends and indicators for private cultural financing

With the increased focus on cultural entrepreneurship, private financing has become a very important income source for cultural institutions and artists. In order to stimulate "giving to culture", central government has implemented the Gift and Inheritance Tax Act 2012 [Geefwet]. With this act, a number of facilities are incorporated into fiscal laws in order to make "giving to culture" fiscally attractive for individual citizens (see chapter 5.1.5).

In 2012, the government also pursued the campaign Care about Culture [Cultuur, daar geef je om] in order to stimulate private gifts to culture. In the period 1995-2013, giving to culture increased on the average, but decreased since 2005 from 326 million to 282 million EUR in 2013 (Bekkers en Franssen 2015). The most important reason for this decrease was the economic recession. Companies and enterprises (the largest financers) in particular stopped subsidising culture due to their economic circumstances.

Table 3: Private financial contributions to arts and culture in the period 2005-2013

Million EUR

%* of the total sum of donations to culture**

2005

2007

2009

2011

2013

2005

2007

2009

2011

Households

31

24

33

26

57

10

6

7

9

Legacies

2

7

2

6

3

1

2

0

2

Funds

125

82

76

69

79

38

21

17

24

Companies

135

235

296

124

80

41

61

65

43

Lotteries

33

38

47

62

63

10

10

10

22

Total

326

386

454

287

282

100

100

100

100

Source: Bekkers et al. 2015; Bekkers and Franssen, 2015.

A study at the request of the Ministry of OCW by the Philanthropic Studies Working Group of the Vrije Universiteit (Free University) Amsterdam in June 2016 on the effects of the Gift and Inheritance Tax Act showed that the impact of the act on most cultural institutions is minimal. Only the major institutions succeed in attracting more money from companies and individuals. In 2014 companies spent more on sponsorship of these major institutions, while wealthy individuals on the other hand reduced their spending. A mere 11 percent of institutions receive 87% of all income from fundraising. The Gift and Inheritance Tax Act appears to be unknown among Wealthy Dutch individuals and businesses. Medium-sized and very large institutions which actively informed potential donors about the existence of the Gift and Inheritance Tax Act received more income from fundraising.

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